'At Home in the Heart of Appalachia' by John O'Brien

I picked up "At Home in the Heart of Appalachia" by John O'Brien on a whim at a library book sale. I'd volunteered with the Appalachian Service Project, a home-repair ministry, all four summers when I was in high school, and worked in towns in Kentucky, West Virginia and Tennessee.

Although O'Brien spent part of his childhood living in Piedmont, W.Va., his family moved away from the area, and he returns to nearby Franklin with the intention to write a book about Appalachia. Of course, "Appalachia," he finds, doesn't exist -- not as outsiders see it, anyhow. He ends up focusing on the tension that exists between families who have lived in the region for generations and outsiders (including missionaries) who come into the area trying to educate the hillbilly out of the locals.

Where he writes about the reaction to outsiders' generalizations about and perceptions of local families, O'Brien shines. In fact, my favorite section was where he described his year of teaching high school and one particular student's vehement anger at being labeled a "hillbilly." A close second is the varied history O'Brien gives of the region -- from mountaintop removal to coal mining to the disappearance of sheep farmers.

Where I felt he faltered, though, was in his sections about his family. The book opens with O'Brien driving "home" to Piedmont on the day his father's funeral is held in Philadelphia. Their relationship had become so estranged that he decided it would benefit no one if he showed up. He touches on this storyline every so often, but I never felt as if he fully explained (or understood himself) how he became so distant from his father and his family.

But if you are reading for love of (or interest in) the region, go ahead and check it out -- and let me know what you think.